The Three Admirals Part 9

"If we were certain of making good our pa.s.sage in this direction. I should say so, but before exerting our strength we must see from which quarter the wind will next blow. It may be in our teeth, and all our labour will have been in vain."

Tom divided the crew into two watches: he, Billy, and Pat taking one; Desmond, with Jerry Bird and Tim, being in the other. Tom took the first watch, as he had an idea that the weather would change before midnight.

"You need not sit up, Billy," he said. "If you are wanted I'll call you. Tim will tend the main halyards and keep a look-out forward."

Billy, who was always ready for a _caulk_, lay down in the stern sheets.

Tim kept himself awake by alternately singing s.n.a.t.c.hes of Irish songs and whistling. Tom himself had some difficulty in keeping awake. He had lighted the binnacle lamp, by which he saw that the boat's head was turned now to one, now to another point of the compa.s.s. Several times he got up to look about; though no sailing vessel could near them, a steamer might, and often and often he fancied he heard the sound of one in the distance. Hour after hour pa.s.sed by; he looked at his watch, which had fortunately kept good time. At midnight he roused up Desmond, charging him to keep a good look out for any sudden squall. "Which way it may come it is impossible to say, but I think very likely from the point for which we are steering," he observed.

Bird was of the same opinion. "We'll not be caught napping, sir," he said, as Tom lay down, thankful for the prospect of getting some rest.

Desmond managed to keep awake, and amused himself by listening to Pat Casey's yarns, which were so extraordinary that Desmond fancied he must be drawing upon his imagination, though he did not think fit to say so.

The middle watch pa.s.sed away much as the first had done. Now and then a whale or some vast fish was heard blowing or splashing in the water, but nothing could be seen, the sound travelling over the smooth surface to a great distance.

"We will let the first watch have their sleep out," said Desmond. "It is a pity to rouse them up until daylight, though you, Pat, can lie down."

"Shure, it's only my tongue that's been kept hard at work, and that will get along very well without any rest, so with your leave I'll sit up and keep Jerry company," answered the Irishman.

Scarcely an hour after this, Desmond, who fancied he was awake, was sitting near the tiller, with his hand placed mechanically on it, when he felt it suddenly move. There was a rushing sound, the boat heeled slowly over. Tom, who even in his sleep felt the movement, jumped up, and finding the boat heeling over, "Let go the main-sheet," he shouted to Pat, who, being in the land of dreams, had neglected to lower away on the main halyards. Once aroused, he quickly obeyed the order, and the boat happily righted. Fortunately, the stores being well stowed, nothing shifted, or it might have gone hard with them. Tom's first act was to look at the compa.s.s. The wind, as he had expected, was from the north-west. Desmond was keeping the boat close on the starboard tack, heading away to the southward of west.

"I was afraid so," exclaimed Tom. "However, we will try what we can do.

Perhaps it will shift again to its old quarter; but if it holds as it now does, we shall have a dead beat to Yokohama, and it may be many a long day before we get there. We will give it a fair trial, however, in case the wind should change."

Daylight soon came. Tom gazed anxiously around.

"We will heave to and go to breakfast. Should the wind continue as it is for a couple of hours, we will then bear up at once and run for Guam.

It is a sign to us that that must be our destination."

Having boiled their kettle, they took their first breakfast on board the boat.

"Follow my example, and make a good one," said Billy. "If it comes on to blow, and we should have to heave any of our cargo overboard, it is as well to save as much as possible."

The men, at all events, were inclined to follow the midshipman's advice; and after breakfast Tom got out his chart and p.r.i.c.ked off their course and present position.

"With this wind we shall soon sight the Bonins, so that we shall not have lost much time. We shall, I hope, make Bailey Islands before dark; after that our course must be south by east, which will carry us clear of several rocks and reefs to the westward, and I hope that if we have a good breeze we may sight one of the more northern of the Ladrones in the course of a week or ten days, and Guam is about three hundred miles further south."

Desmond fully agreed to Tom's proposal, and the time they had fixed on having arrived, and the wind blowing as strongly and steadily as ever, the helm was put up, and the boat was steered on the proposed course.

Although the Bonins were seen, night came on before they sighted Bailey Islands; and Tom, afraid of running on them in the dark, steered more to the eastward than he otherwise would have done.

Before the first watch was set he addressed his companions, urging them one and all to keep a vigilant look out ahead, both day and night. "We have not the advantage, recollect, of a large vessel, when a rock or reef may be seen from the mast-head," he observed. "Should there be any sea running, the first intimation we may have of our danger may be by finding ourselves on the top of a coral rock. We must be always ready, at a moment's notice, to alter our course, and get out the oars should the wind fail us. By that means we may escape the dangers we must expect to meet with. Remember, the chart we have got is an old one and may be inaccurate, so that it would be unwise to trust completely to it."

"Very important remarks, and I hope the men in my watch will remember them, as I shall myself," said Desmond.

Though the wind was fair, they ran on all night, under the main-sail, foresail, and mizzen, in case they should suddenly have to haul up to avoid any danger upon which they might be running. "As soon as we have daylight we will set the square sail, and make up for lost time," said Tom. The wind held fair, but towards morning it began to fall, and by daybreak it was again perfectly calm.

"Suppose the wind springs up next time from the southward, are we to run north?" asked Billy.

"Wait until that time comes," answered Tom. "We have now laid a course for Guam, and Guam I hope we shall reach some day or other."

As the sun rose the heat became very great, increased by the glare from the ocean, which shone like a sheet of burnished gold. Having a second suit of sails, Tom had the mainsail rigged as an awning, which, as the sun got higher, served to shelter their heads, and to prevent the risk of a sunstroke. The awning, however, could only be kept up as long as it remained calm, when it was of course most required. Although some progress might have been made by rowing, Tom was unwilling to fatigue his crew, thinking it better to husband their strength for any emergency which might occur. At the usual hour Tom piped to breakfast, which was made to last as long as possible. Tom's great difficulty was to find occupation for all hands. Unfortunately they had no books except the nautical almanac, which was not interesting reading. Yarn spinning is very well in the evening when men have done their work, but few can go on all day either as listeners or narrators. Even singing songs becomes somewhat monotonous, especially when the list is small and the singers have already trolled them forth over and over again. Their chief amus.e.m.e.nt was watching the coveys of flying-fish which rose every now and then from the ocean, and darted through the air, their bright scales glittering in the sun. Occasionally a whale spouted forth a jet of vapour and spray with a loud noise like that emitted by the safety valve of a steam engine; while albicores, bonitos; and dolphins, with various other fish, could be seen here and there, sporting and tumbling, as they came to the surface, sending a circle of wavelets extending far and wide around. Sea birds also flew through the blue ether, their wings appearing of snowy whiteness as they caught the rays of the sun in their rapid flight.

Jerry Bird proposed getting out the oars. "Maybe, sir, if we pull on for a few hours we may fall in with some craft becalmed; and though we may wish to continue the voyage in our boat, we may have a talk with her people, hear the news, and maybe get a gla.s.s of grog."

"Or slice of plum pudding, or pot of jam," put in Billy.

As there appeared to be no signs of a breeze springing up, Tom agreed to Jerry's proposal, and the oars were got out, Billy taking one of them, at which Gerald promised to take a spell when he got tired. Heavily laden, however, as the boat was, they could scarcely send her ahead at the rate of two knots an hour; but even that was something; and supposing they could row for fifteen hours, night and day, thirty miles might be made good during the four and twenty.

Jerry, to keep up the spirits of his companions, led off with a song, when Tim and Pat followed him; and thus they continued until Tom piped to dinner. They indeed seemed much happier than when doing nothing. As soon as dinner was over they again took to the oars, and pulled on steadily until dark; but no land was seen, nor was a sail in sight.

Indeed, so limited was their horizon, that they were likely to pa.s.s low islands without observing them. The night was as calm as the day; but, as the men required sleep, Tom kept only two oars going. When the sun rose the next morning it shone on the same polished surface as on the previous day.

"Not an air in the heavens," said Jerry, in answer to Tom's inquiries, as he rose from his sleeping-place in the stern sheets; "and, to my mind, there won't be."

"We must have patience," said Tom, preparing to take a morning bath by jumping overboard.

"Be careful, sir, and look out for sharks," observed Jerry. "I would not, if I were you, go far from the boat."

"I will follow your advice. Keep the oars splashing, and that will frighten them off, if any are near," said Tom.

Plunging in, the midshipmen swam round and round the boat several times.

Billy jumped overboard, but being of opinion that he was likely to prove a tempting morsel to Jack Shark, very quickly begged Jerry to help him on board again. The midshipmen having dressed themselves, the men imitated their example. They were splashing about round the beat, when Pat shouted out--

"Bear a hand; get on board, mates. I caught sight of the fin of a big fellow not twenty fathoms off; he'll be after trying the taste of our legs, if we don't look sharp."

The midshipmen stood ready to help in the men, for they also had seen the ominous black fin. Jerry, who had an especial dread of sharks, quickly threw himself over the gunwale, with the a.s.sistance of Tom, while Desmond and Billy helped up Tim. Pat, who was farthest out, caught hold of the bobstay and was hoisting himself on board by the jibboom, when a cry of dismay escaped him.

"He nearly had me, the baste; for I felt his jaws touch my foot."

That this was not imagination was proved by the blood running from Pat's heel, where the lips, though fortunately not the teeth of the monster, had struck him. A second later, and Pat's foot would have been off to a certainty. The shark was directly afterwards seen swimming alongside the boat and casting a malicious leer at those on board.

"It will be a lesson to us in future not to swim away from the side,"

observed Tom.

"It will be a lesson for me not to go overboard at all," said Billy.

"_I've_ no fancy to become food for a shark."

Another night pa.s.sed. Tom found at noon the next day that, instead of thirty, they had not made good twenty miles. The fact was that at times they were not rowing at all; at others only two oars were going, when not more than one mile an hour was made, and even when four were rowing, they had to exert themselves to move the boat at the rate of two knots an hour. Still progress was being made. They should in time reach the most northern of the Ladrones, where they might venture on sh.o.r.e without fear of being killed and eaten, as would certainly be their lot on any of the islands further to the south-west. Rowing all day under a burning sun is not conducive to health, and though none of the party were actually ill, they began to long for a breeze, which would send them more rapidly on their course; while their spirits, which had hitherto been kept up, also flagged considerably. Each day, too, they made less progress than on the former one, a sign that their strength was somewhat failing. They had hitherto had an ample supply of food.

The salt junk found on board the wreck had been kept to be used only in case of necessity. Of their turtle, one had been killed, and they had feasted on it for a couple of days, until the remainder grew bad, and they were compelled to throw it overboard. One morning Pat, who had taken charge of the animals, announced that the other was dead, having died during the night, and that unless it was quickly eaten it would be lost. This proved to be the case, especially to Billy's regret, who saw the tempting morsels swallowed by the shark, which had, since its first appearance, followed the boat. The still more alarming announcement was that several of their hams, which they had fancied so well cured, were also getting bad. Some were consigned to the maw of the voracious shark, though others, which were only slightly tainted, were kept until the continued heat rendered them uneatable. Pat could not make it out, but it was discovered on examination that neither the smoke nor salt had penetrated to any depth, and that they would have done better to have cut the meat in thin strips and attempted thus to preserve it.

"Well, we shall have fish enough and roots, before we attack the junk; we must husband the biscuit and other things," observed Tom.

He accordingly put all hands on an allowance. It was with no small anxiety that he examined the cured fish, which he was grieved to find emitted far from a pleasant odour; still, as it was at present eatable, he continued to serve it out.

"It is not often I have known a calm last so long as this," exclaimed Jerry, when a whole week had pa.s.sed, and not a breath of air had filled their sails. "We would have been better off on sh.o.r.e had we known what was coming."

"We should not grumble," observed Tom. "We have got upwards of a hundred miles to the southward; when a breeze does come we shall have so much less distance to make."

"But the food and the water, sir?" exclaimed Jerry.

"We must touch at the nearest island we sight and obtain a fresh supply," was the answer.